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The Yamaha Ténéré 700 Is the Adventure Motorcycle We’ve Been Waiting For

If you need any more proof that the world of adventure motorcycles is exploding right now, take a look at all the news flowing out of EICMA this week. Chief among the releases — also one of the more predictable announcements — is the Yamaha Ténéré 700. There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is the middleweight adventure bike won’t be available until the second half of 2020. The good news is it’ll be worth the wait.

Built with obvious design influences from Yamaha’s rally race bikes, the bike’s architecture lends itself to long distance hauls as well as tight trails and maneuverability. The slim tank leading to a relatively narrow, flat seat allows for better rider movement over different terrain, inclines and descents. That tank, as slender as it is, hides a 4.2-gallon capacity giving you a Yamaha-claimed range of approximately 217 miles.

In the official release, Yamaha said the Ténéré 700 will be “lightweight” and will have a “high-torque 689cc four-stroke CP2 parallel twin-cylinder engine,” but stopped just short of explaining how ‘lightweight’ it’ll actually be and how much torque the cross-plane twin-cylinder engine will put to the rear wheel. Yamaha did mention that maximum torque (whatever that ends up being) will be available at 6,500 rpm, right in the middle of the rev range.

The vertically-aligned dash is another feature pulled straight from the world of rally riding. It’s centered and high and right behind the windscreen for ultimate visibility so you can keep an eye on gear position, fuel level and estimated fuel range, plus average and instant fuel consumption. Its placement also accommodates for your GPS and smartphone. There’s no mention of ride modes, but there will be switchable ABS.

We might have seen this bike coming from Yamaha, but now we know it’s real and officially on the way. 2020 can’t come soon enough.